Falling Straight Down
Date
2019-09-17
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Abstract
Falling Straight Down is a novel that examines the power imbalances inherent in comprehending the affective states of the cultural other. Set in Calgary, Canada, this work of fiction centers on a character named Thea Lavallee, an advertising creative who is adept at wielding empathy. As she spearheads a charitable campaign filled with non-Western refugees, she struggles to justify marketing materials that sell trauma in order to solve it. Written from Thea’s point of view, the novel employs narrative devices such as interior monologue, dramatic irony and analepsis to explore tensions between neoliberal expectations of multicultural subjectivity, and face-to-face encounters with the cultural other. Set in the recent past, the narrative contextualizes this exploration alongside sociocultural, economic and political issues such as identity politics, climate change, global economic instability and its links to consumerism, the global refugee crisis, and Calgary’s own oil-patch recession. More specifically, Falling Straight Down examines the ethics of representation in the humanitarian aid industry, juxtaposing the vulnerable subject’s desire for agency and dignity with their need for security and tolerance. It also interrogates the relationship between empathy and death, by examining the role of affect and altruism in palliative medicine. Through imperfect intersubjective relationships, the text explores the conflicting impulses to share and recoil from the emotional experiences of others, particularly those who are culturally diverse. Arising from this narrative context is the novel’s key assertion: In a world where definitions of cultural and economic stability are constantly shifting, and where technology makes stories of distant suffering highly accessible, empathy—in all its imperfections—has the potential to nurture cross-cultural understanding and prosocial behavior. The accompanying exegesis analyzes theories that inform the narrative, and explores intersections between empathy and mortality through the lens of narrative medicine. By delving into the role of empathy in border-crossing relationships, the essay makes connections between theories of affect, narrative medicine, photographic representation, and humanitarianism.
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Keywords
empathy, novel, creative writing, multiculturalism, refugee, ethics of representation, humanitarian communications, advertising, Canadian literature
Citation
Grove, J. C. (2019). Falling Straight Down (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.